Re-Envisioning Learning First, Teaching Second

ELA Webinar
March 4, 2009

external image 21stcenturyskills_thumb.jpg
Start with story about trying to light a fire.

  • Lots of talk about 21st Century Skills.
  • But the real shift is not in the skills but the ways in which we use them.
  • We've always needed critical thinking skills, editing skills, etc.
  • But today our learning is much, much more self-directed. We don't sign up for classes any longer. We make our own classes, find our own teachers and mentors, create our own curriculum for whatever it is we want to learn.
  • We need to be passionate, nomadic learners

Teaching changes when our own learning changes.

Shifts in learning:

  • From private to public: Facebook
  • From linear to distributed: Technorati, comments, trackbacks
  • From individual to network: delicious network visualizer, others
  • From passive to participatory:
  • From time and place to anytime, anywhere:


Brian Crosby Teacher as innovator

Darren Kuropatwa Teacher as publisher

George Mayo Teacher as activist

Vicki Davis Teacher as connector

Clarence Fisher Teacher as networked learner

Jason Welker Teacher as co-creator

What do these teachers have in common?

They are networked learners.
They share their practice.
The connect their students globally.
They give students voice.
They create opportunities for real work for real purposes for their students.
They learn with their students.

This is a period of Fluid Learning.
  • Capture Everything
  • Share Everything
  • Open Everything
  • Only Connect

And we are entering a period of "ubiquitous learning."

What do you think these shifts mean for your own teaching and learning?